How much would it annoy you when a guy in the stands said "hey, you're off on your sixteenth note!" Much worse, "upon playing that syncopated 64th note, you were off, and 40 minutes later, you played a pitch too high". That's two incorrect "calls", and you don't even have an obstruceted view to your lyre!

Would you be wrong? Maybe yes, maybe no, but you were the expert then. It was you who had played the notes thousands of times in practice, hundreds of hours in games before (assuming you did high school band, which duh!). And lol at the guy calling you out, because

a.) you're human, so you're not 100% perfect, and

b.) you're the darn near best option.

Apply the same to refs. (Admission, I was a college ref, so I'm biased. [only intramural, but I've seen it from their perspective])

Intramural? I don't think that qualifies as an inside perspective. When I was there literally anyone could join and competence was extremely rare, especially among the people teaching the new officials the rules.

I feel like every big game Duke wins they have to shoot at least 20 free throws. some of those calls were just awful. The refs were bad in the Kentucky-Wisconsin game too but at least they were awful to both sides.

That's just the thing. If the refs can't make the proper call on a play seen in slow motion, there is no fix aside from firing them. It's not open for interpretation. just make the proper call that everyone clearly saw.

Even Trey's right arm is in perfect position to not touch the other player and draw a foul.

It's a picture perfect clean block.

But watching the game live, the ref went for the whistle as soon as they went up. He was going to call it a foul regardless. It was too irresistable. He did not even wait for the actual play, he just called it in anticipation.

Because nothing happens to them when they screw up. I mean, sure one of them might be chastised publicly, but the NCAA is as much about politics as anything, so if you are an established ref it takes quite a bit of f-ing up to get unseated.

It was a good game marred by some bad possessions by Wiscy and terrible officiating.

Without a doubt, if I were to perform my job that badly tomorrow, I'd deserve to be fired. And so would most of the rest of you at your jobs. Some of us might even be subject to criminal or civil prosecution (or both) if we did our jobs so poorly.

Just googled it and I'm surprised this is the first time I'm reading about this. Then again, I get a lot of my sports news from Reddit and the users there dismiss just about every sexual assault claim they come across.

Honestly after the shit we've gone through against Wisconsin (the 3 pointers off the backboards and half court heaves) i really don't care if they got screwed. I hated every team in the Final 4 so whoever won or lost didn't really matter.

1 Winslow just runs right through the established defender and instead of picking up his fourth he knocks down two free throws.
2 Dukan called for charge at the other end.
3 Then finally they even screw up the review on the out of bounds.

That's never called. Give me one insance where it's indisputable. If we're talking NBA, maybe (I don't wath I don't know) If we're talking college, no. That's a really smart play on the Duke guy's position, and one we were all taught in high school. The fact that his elbow hit the Wisc player's face is an accident and therefore "basketball play". I don't think any b-ball player would call that, even less the refs.

That's how it's called every single time. Jackson got away with a more blatant example against UK on a 3. If Koenig wasn't beat on the play he wouldn't have given Jones the chance to make that play.

I think the blame on officials in this game is way overdone. They blew the two out of bounds plays and probably the first Winslow charge, but that's really it. The second Winslow charge was a good no call. You think there weren't equally dubious calls that went Wisconsin's way?

Duke was in the double bonus early because they were aggressive and consistently beating guys to the hole. The aggressiveness made the body bumps that is the hallmark of Wisconsin defense obvious fouls.

Let's not be like MSU or Wisconsin fans that think every call against their team is a bad one just because their coach doesn't believe his team has ever committed a foul.

Both winning teams were coached by a hall of fame coach, both losers had the big ten and national players of the year, both winners were from the acc, both losers were from the big ten, both had a small white dude play out of their minds (spike, allen), both were close games and had end of game calls that were incorrect, (the block and the out of bounds play). Also both games featured a red and blue team.

No, it's not. The top of the backboard is inbounds. As are the side and bottom faces. Only when the ball goes over the top of the backboard (through the invisible plane on the back edge of he top face) is it out of bounds.

I'd say ours was worse. They waited until the 2nd half in this game to miss calls. In our game, they missed it from the start with Burke's 2nd foul, the goaltend that didn't happen, getting the foul on the wrong person, and then missing the block on Siva.

if you're a bball ref for a pretty big conference you make some decent money. I'm sure most of them have other jobs. When I say decent money, they're not making 6 figures but they probably make 50-70K which is a heck of a lot more then what high school refs make.

2. All of them do have day jobs. Ed Hightower was a school superintendent, there are lawyers, judges, businessmen, etc. They tend to work fixed evening schedules and weekends, and it's seasonal anyway, so it usually works out.

low size (>30) but the number I recall from college refs was ~80k. That's not a lot (more than I make as a recent grad, but that's not saying much) but that's still way higher than the median american. I know we here make more than average, but median america makes less than 50k. So yeah, working for even 70k isn't bad. (1099 employees, so they have to cover their own insurance etc. Deduct as you will).

low size (>30) but the number I recall from college refs was ~80k. That's not a lot (more than I make as a recent grad, but that's not saying much) but that's still way higher than the median american. I know we here make more than average, but median america makes less than 50k. So yeah, working for even 70k isn't bad. (1099 employees, so they have to cover their own insurance etc. Deduct as you will).

Ugh. Every person I see on Facebook who posts about the lousy officiating, some State fan they're friends with is Johnny-on-the-spot with, "Durrr yup, Duke getting all the calls reminds me a lot of another blue team!". Michigan hasn't played a basketball game in over three weeks, State was just blown out in the semifinal two nights ago, and somehow Michigan's all they can think about.

Not to mention Michigan had one of the most phantom fouls I've ever seen help cost them a National Championship only two years ago, and State's coach is nationally known for his antics with the officials. Both their obsession and lack of self-awareness are stunning.

Sorry if you didn't, but it's a little ambiguous...I hope you don't mean my comment. I can quite sincerely tell you that after that game I was most definitely not thinking about Michigan State basketball. Until I saw the inanity I just described.

Honestly, from the angle, on a blurry replay, you can't be sure. You *think* you are sure, but you can't really see his finger deform, and your brain is making 3D inferences about a 2D image that are often unreliable.

They should just do away with the replays. It's not worth the wait. You can't see much extra on a blurry replay, and then people think they can see things they really can't, and the announcers muck it up, and it ends up just being a coin-flip that's not better than the call you started with. And it takes several minutes. We all accept that there is some luck in the game, whether it's precisely where the ball lands, or where my foot falls, or whatever. You win or lose regardless of that stuff, and it's pointless to complain about.

Actually it was pretty clear once you saw his finger bend back when it made contact with the ball. Even so it was close. But on top of missing Duke step on the line right before that it was inexcusable. Those two calls gave Duke 5 points.

the spin changed on the ball. That's the tell-tale sign even for IM guys (the experienced guys taught us to look at the spin rather than fingers; spin is longer and more definative than a t.1 seccond touch)

While I can see where you could question whether he touched the ball, what you can't question is that the rotation of the ball changed significantly in mid air. The rotation change of the ball is only going to happen if it touches something or someone.

On the feed I saw, his middle finger flicked back by an entire inch, in high definition. It was a foregone conclusion that it was Wisconsin ball. Except I knew better. I knew they'd screw it up, because somehow, they always screw it up. I was not at all surprised by the call, simply because all sports use the same replay guy and he clearly has massive cataracts.

Anytime you allow the officials that made the original call to review their own call, they're going to be very hesitant to overturn it. It's human nature - nobody likes to admit their wrong. You need an outside set of eyes to review the call -- one without a vested interest in it not be overturned. The NHL and MLB do it right.

How can the announcers just accept it when the refs came over and explained they couldn't see who it was off of, so left it Duke ball. Maybe be like, well we can see it's clearly off of Duke, should be Wisconsin ball, here look at our slow motion and zooming in angles instead of whatever pieces of shit TVs you're using.

Regarding the OOB replay at the end of the game, sometimes refs see on replay that they missed a foul. Perhaps that was the case here? Maybe they saw that they should've called a foul on wisconsin so they rewarded Duke with the ball? Or they're just blind as fuck.

I live in Wisconsin but I'm a die hard maize and blue fan yet still pulled hard as hell for my home state team. That being said another Wisconsin sports team fucked over by officials. First off,Winslow touched that ball,secondly he stepped out of bounds, thirdly Grayson Allen pushes off more than the Harrison twins combined and lastly Wisconsin commits the fewest fouls in the country in the regular season at 12 per game yet, all tournament long they're the biggest foulers out there. There needs to be consistency in officiating with this culture of you can drive to the hoop head down,ball cradled, arms out, ready to run someone over, yet it's a defensive foul? I couldn't tell if it was Grayson Allen or Marshawn lynch out there. Screw duke. These wins mean nothing compared to what uw fans would've felt. Congrats you'll the best class in the country and do it year after year, while Bo Ryan gets crap and has to fight tooth and nail for a sweet 16.

team's have to play through bad calls and biased refing. It's a competition hazard of all sports particularly team sports. Sometimes it's not a conspiracy but refs simply don't like a coach or certain players due their attitudes or reputation or simply make bad calls. Who knows, it's a basketball game and the bgtn team lost. Overall Wisconsin exceeded expectation and represented the bgtn well. The bgtn deserves respect in football and basketball placing teams in both NC title games.